Top 10 Tips for Frugal Menu Planning Newbies

Last week I received an email from a reader. She is new to planning budgets and making menu plans and wanted some advice. Inspired by her questions here are my Top 10 Tips for Frugal Menu Planning Newbies:

1. Make a realistic budget with your spouse. Whether setting up a budget for all your spending or only your groceries, be realistic about what you currently NEED to spend.


2. Use the sales flyers for local supermarkets. Weekly sales are full of "loss leaders." These are heavily discounted items intended to get you in the door and spend money on non-sales items. Ask if your favorite supermarket will price match other stores in your area.


3. Use coupons ONLY if the product is something you will need/use even if you didn't have a coupon. Also make sure the coupon product is the best deal.


4. Buy generic or store brand. Generic products are often similar in taste and quality to that of name brand. For example: Did you notice a couple of years ago when Peter Pan Peanut Butter issued their recall that Wal-Mart brand peanut butter was also recalled? Because it was made in the same plant! I'm thinking it's the same stuff with different packaging!! Except one is significantly cheaper than the other.


5. Keep it Simple. If you have never planned a menu before don't start with a month! Start with one week. If your budget is for 2 weeks, consider repeating the menu a second week until you are comfortable with menu planning.


6. When writing your list of meals, ask other household members to contribute their favorites. You might be surprised by what they do and don't like.


7. Use the weekly sales flyers to plan your menu. For example, if chicken is on sale this week then plan to have several chicken meals.


8. Stock up on meat sales. I rarely pay more than $1.99 lb. for boneless chicken breasts, 80/20 ground beef and steak/roast. I buy it on sale and freeze it in meal sized portions.


9. As much as possible, cook from scratch. It's cheaper and healthier. For example, a box of Hamburger Helper Stroganoff will cost about $2 with a coupon. You get 1 meal from the box. For $1 I can buy a box of pasta that will make 2 meals. Add $.70 for cream of mushroom soup and I spent less for the more food.


10. Plan to not cook. Keep 1 -2 frozen meals in the freezer for days that you just can't cook. A frozen pizza is much cheaper than take out!

What are you top tips and recommendations for frugal menu planning newbies?

Are you a newbie with a question? Please ask and I'll try to answer it!

Note: Feel free to use my any of my recipes for your menus. I just ask that you leave a comment if you try one and DON'T publish them for profit. Thanks!

Photos by rick and Simon Shek.

Family Fun Friday - The Circus

Welcome to Family Fun Friday: THE place to share fun and frugal ideas for family activities. Please read the Guidelines and share your ideas with us!!

This week's topic: the Circus!!

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to Providence every year during the first weekend of May. Joel and I decided the Circus would be a fun activity for our family to do this year. As you can see from the video below we had a great time!



I was pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive Circus tickets are compared to other attractions. With the cheapest seats only $10 a person, the Circus is cheaper than the movie theaters in my area!!

However, for my family of 6 to attend that still means $50+ just to get in the door (Under 1 year is free but don't forget to add Ticketmaster's fees for everyone else). So, I googled 'Ringling Brothers Circus discount code' and found RetailMeNot.com. There I was able to find, AND USE, a code for 50% off our ticket prices!!

I love it when that happens!

In addition to half-priced tickets, we did two things that helped make our Circus experience really spectacular:

• Joel took Friday off of work and we attended a morning show. Going in the morning made for a MUCH smaller crowd. I'm all for smaller crowds!! It also meant we didn't have to worry about buying lunch or supper at the venue. It also made the day super special for my kids to know that Daddy had taken off of work to do something fun with them.

• We arrived an hour early and attended the All Access Pre-Show. This is FREE with your ticket!! You go down on the venue floor where you can watch the Circus performers up close & personal, try on clown costumes and get so close to an elephant you can almost touch her!! This was probably my favorite part of the day!

I realize not everyone lives in an area visited by Ringling Brothers, however, that doesn't mean you can't attend a circus. Watch for smaller, lesser known circuses in your area or traditional circus acts at non-circus events. In fact, one of the dog acts we saw at Ringling Brothers Circus we remember watching at a small circus performance at the Big E.

When was the last time you attended the circus? What is your favorite act? The trained animals? Trapeze? Magic Tricks?
Recommended Ages: Fun for ALL!
Equipment Needed: A sense of wonder and awe.
Cost: Varies.
When: Spring - Fall.

Note: We attended the Ringling Brothers Zing, Zang, Zoom show. The show focuses a great deal on magic tricks and a character named Levitytia. This could be an issue for some people.

Disclosure: Ringling Brothers and other companies linked to in this post in NO way sponsored this post.

My Favorite Summer Activity

Summer has arrived for much of the U.S. and is almost here in Rhode Island!!!

So, I thought I would share with you my favorite summer activity... eating!!! Watch this and you'll understand more:



Don't you agree summer food is the best?! In case you're interested, the Red, White and Blueberry Pie recipe is here.

What's your favorite summer food?

By the way, have you checked out MomTV, yet? Go have a look right now! It free to sign up and once you do be sure to "friend/fan" me. I'm "Stephanie."